Skip to main content

Tripartite Struggle over Kanauj

                                                    Tripartite Struggle

Since the accession of Harshavadhana or Harsha in 606 AD, Kanyakubja (the modern Kanauj in the state of Uttar Pradesh) was to be one of the largest and most prosperous cities of North India till the coming of Muslims. Not much is known about the kingdom of Kanauj after Harsha’s death in 647 AD resulting in a great confusion due to the absence of his heirs. 

Kanyakubja came for a short period under the hands of an usurper, Arunasva who attacked Wang Xuance who had come to the court of Harsha as ambassador of the Chinese emperorTang Taizong. However, Wang Xuance, with the help of an army from Tibet and Nepal, succeeded in capturing Arunasva who was taken back to China to spend his days in attendance on the Tang Emperor. 

About AD 730 we find a famous king named Yasovarman establishing a kingdom at Kanauj. His invasion of Gauda (Bengal) formed the subject of the Prakrit poem Gaudvadha (Slaying of the king of Bengal), composed by Vakapatiraja in the eighth century AD. After Yasovarman, three kings, namely Vijrayudha, Indrayudha and Chakrayudha, ruled over Kanauj between close of the eight century till the second decade of the ninth century. Talking advantage of the weakness of these Ayudha rulers and attracted by the immense strategic and economic potentialities of the kingdom of Kanauj, the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Bhinmal (Rajasthan), the Palas of Bengal and Bihar and the Rashtrakutas of the Manyakheta (Maharashtra) fought against each other with a view to having control over the area.  

This tripartite struggle for Kanauj lingered for almost two centuries and ultimately ended in favour of the Gurjara-Pratihara ruler Nagabhata II who made the city the capital of the Gurjara-Pratihara kingdom, which ruled for nearly two centuries. Kanyakubja was plundered by Mahmud Ghazni who made seventeen raids on India between 1001 and 1027.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Matangini Hazra

Matangini Hazra was a woman revolutionary and brave freedom fighter who fought for the independence of India from the British and laid down her life for it.  She was from a small village called Hogla located near Tamluk, the headquarters of the Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal. Hazra was born on October 19, 1870. Matangini Hazra was one of the protagonists of the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamralipta National Government), a parallel government established during the Quit India Movement.  Matangini Hazra was shot dead by the police in front of the Tamluk Police Station on 29 September 1942.  Matangini Hazra was  affectionately known as Gandhi buri, Bengali for old lady Gandhi.  The famed Hazra Road in Kolkata is also named after her. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Muhammad Shah Rangila

Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal emperor, died in 1707. Muhammad Shah became Mughal emperor in 1719. During the interregnum, Bahadur Shah I , Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi-ud-Darajat and Rafi-ud-Daula ascended the Mughal throne. Jahandar Shah was murdered on the orders of Farrukhsiyar who had the support of the two powerful Mughal nobles Sayyid Abdullah and his brother Sayyid Husain Ali at that time. They are famous in history as Sayyid brothers, the King-makers. In 1719, Farrukhsiyar were murdered in utter disregard of a Mughal emperor by Sayyid brothers. Rafi-ud-Darajat died of consumption in a few months. Rafi-ud-Daula was addicted to opium and died in 4 months. Sayyid brothers now chose Raushan Akhtar, a son of Jahan Shah (the fourth son of Bahadur Shah I), to be the emperor. Raushan Akhtar ascended the throne under the title of Muhamamd Shah in September 1719. In the beginning Muhammad Shah was a puppet in the hands of Sayyid brothers who soon began to lose their gri...
1 comment
Read more

Minhaj-us-Siraj: Author of Tabaqat-i-Nasiri

Minhaj-ud-din Abu Uraar bin Siraj-ud-din al-Juzjani, popularly known as Minhaj-us-Siraj,  was a medieval historian who was patronized by Slave Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud to whom he had dedicated his magnum opus Tabaqat-i-Nasiri . Since Siraj held the high office of the Chief Qazi of Delhi to which he was appointed by Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, it is natural that Tabaqat-i-Nasiri gives a first hand account of the historical events from the conquest of Delhi by Muhammad of Ghur up to the year 1260 AD. Siraj was temporarily removed from the post of Chief Qazi from 1253 to 1255 when a section of nobles induced the Sultan to send his prime minister Balban into exile.  Tabaqat-i-Nasiri has been translated into English by Raverty .   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page was last edited on 24 July 2021
6 comments
Read more